I recommend you follow what you are enthusiastic about. Some people say that doing what you love for a living will make you hate it. Maybe for some, but I guarantee you that doing something you don't like for a living will never make it more fulfilling over time.

Years ago I passed up the opportunity to change to a more fulfilling career because of the drop in pay I would have suffered. I regret the decision now. I don't hate my current career, but get no joy from it. Considering how many hours a week I spend in the commission of my work, it makes for a void.

If you are really exceptional at your chosen career, you will find opportunities to make better money over time. When you love what you do you are more likely to invest the effort to become exceptional.

I don't want to be the devil's advocate ... but i was talking to a friend in the states recently and he told me a trick that his brother is using to postpone paying his college loans. basically he said the law cannot force you to pay back your loans until you are no longer a student. so he holds off finishing his degree as long as he can, and then, as soon as he finishes, he enrolls in a different college and starts another degree, taking out another loan.

so i guess you could postpone finishing your degree and you can start working as a mechanic. then, after you finish, you could start another degree while still working as a mech. the second loan can be much smaller ( cheap public school ), so what you will earn in this period as a mech ( while taking your 2nd degree ) will be considerably greater than the loan you take for that period.

it's cheating the system in a way ... so do it only if you know you can still sleep well at night

I don't want to be the devil's advocate ... but i was talking to a friend in the states recently and he told me a trick that his brother is using to postpone paying his college loans. basically he said the law cannot force you to pay back your loans until you are no longer a student. so he holds off finishing his degree as long as he can, and then, as soon as he finishes, he enrolls in a different college and starts another degree, taking out another loan.

so i guess you could postpone finishing your degree and you can start working as a mechanic. then, after you finish, you could start another degree while still working as a mech. the second loan can be much smaller ( cheap public school ), so what you will earn in this period as a mech ( while taking your 2nd degree ) will be considerably greater than the loan you take for that period.

it's cheating the system in a way ... so do it only if you know you can still sleep well at night

but at the end of your "loan dodging" you have intrest and huge bills. not a good plan IMO.

I don't want to be the devil's advocate ... but i was talking to a friend in the states recently and he told me a trick that his brother is using to postpone paying his college loans. basically he said the law cannot force you to pay back your loans until you are no longer a student. so he holds off finishing his degree as long as he can, and then, as soon as he finishes, he enrolls in a different college and starts another degree, taking out another loan.

so i guess you could postpone finishing your degree and you can start working as a mechanic. then, after you finish, you could start another degree while still working as a mech. the second loan can be much smaller ( cheap public school ), so what you will earn in this period as a mech ( while taking your 2nd degree ) will be considerably greater than the loan you take for that period.

it's cheating the system in a way ... so do it only if you know you can still sleep well at night

while that is technically true it only works to a point. You are given a finite lifetime amount of money so when that's dried up you'll still need to come up with money to pay if you continue. You also need to be enrolled at least half time to be in the clear. Also, if your loans are private loans, they accrue interest while you're in school so the money already borrowed keeps getting greater and greater. At ~10% interest that means in 10 years you would owe 2x as much as you did when you started with if you don't make payments. Sure I could be a part time student at a cheapo school and pay like 2k/year and never have to make a loan payment, but; to be honest I have no desire to sit in a class learning something I don't like just to dodge loans.

Realistically with my 160k degree I should be making (before taxes) 60k/year starting out on average. Pay depends on area as with any job. In 6 years I could have my entire loan paid off if I paid ~3k/month. 3k is a crazy amount of money to go out to 1 source per month but still possible with my degree. If I were to take the automotive route I wouldn't even make that much a month so I'd be stuck making bare minimum payments which means it would take 10-15 years to pay off (not to mention I'd be paying off a degree that's not even being used).

Just consider this. Finish the class, go into an engineering firm (don't let them know of your automotive ambitions, this may hinder you there) pay off the loan. Once you have the degree and some work experience, then you have something worth shopping around. Would there not be jobs for people in the automotive industry that would require/desire people with engineering backgrounds?

becoming an engineer while you pay off your loans is the only feasible option, there is no question. you won't be able to handle $3,000 a year on $60,000 pretax salary, that would leave about $10,000/year for you to live on. meanwhile you'd have zero savings. plan to pay off your loans in seven years at least.

Anyway, just to echo what several others have said, try engineering first. That is the "expected" initial career move based on your age and degree. Doing something totally different right out of the gate will raise eyebrows on a resume down the road.

I agree with the rest, finish your degree and be an engineer for a while.

If you really want to work in automotive, there's nothing stopping you from getting ASE certified at a community college in 6 months-1 year while you're working, although probably beneficial I'm not sure if that's even necessary. This could also let you defer your loans if you so choose. After a while you can move on to become an actual automotive engineer at a racing firm, design studio, whatever, instead of just a dealership technician which is where you'd most likely end up if you went to Wyotech or something like that. An engineering degree is an engineering degree; you may have to learn some specifics for the field but you should have the basics. You'll also make a lot more than a greasemonkey in a shop and you'll still be able to turn a wrench at home on the weekends.

Do you think that your issues with the university has soured your thoughts on engineering? Why did you do it in the first place? Do you have any experience in the field? Or any idea what you would be doing?

Like I said, being an engineer is drastically different from engineering schooling.